Skim away the dross
Take away the dross from the silver, and there comes out a vessel for the smith. Proverbs 25:4
I was reading Proverbs 25 recently and paused on verse 4: “Take away the dross from the silver, and there comes out a vessel for the smith.” I asked the Lord to remove any dross that might be present in my life…and then I got nervous for a couple of reasons.
First, dross is made up of impurities —non-silver particles that mar the value of silver. In my life, dross is anything I’m involved with or putting up with that’s not pleasing to the Lord—and I realized that I may have more dross tucked away than I bargained for! Was I really prepared for all the minor—and major—overhauls this dross-removal prayer may have initiated?
Second, the way in which those impurities are removed from silver is to super-heat the metal until it is molten hot. Only then can the dross be skimmed off the top. Did I really want to undergo the fiery crucible indicated by this verse to remove soulish impurities from my life?
I read further in the Proverb as I pondered this, and I noticed several instructions and warnings. And it dawned on me—many of these were dross-removing instructions! If I followed them, the dross would skim right off. And as for the warnings—they were perfect dross-identifiers. I didn’t need to undergo fiery trials to remove the dross from my life—I merely needed to heed the Word.
I found the warnings—dross-identifiers—extremely helpful and eye-opening. Here are some:
Do not reveal the secret of another (vs. 9). Don’t open the door to trouble by telling someone’s secret to others. If you are a secret-blabber, you need to get busy with dross-skimming.
Like clouds and wind without rain is a man who boasts of his gifts falsely (vs. 14). If you try to build yourself up in the eyes of others by stretching the truth about your gifts, talents, abilities, or accomplishments, you have some dross to get rid of.
Like a club and a sword and a sharp arrow is a man who bears false witness against his neighbor (vs. 18). If you lie about someone…or stretch the truth to make them look worse than they are, you’ve got dross. You can’t be a pure vessel until it’s dealt with. This means you need to repent of it and ask for forgiveness from God. In turn, He will likely tell you to apologize to the one you lied to AND the one you lied about.
Like a bad tooth and an unsteady foot is confidence in a faithless man in time of trouble (vs. 19). Follow through with your commitments to others…including those who have no ability to enhance your resume. When you are untrustworthy or unfaithful to your word, you have some undealt with dross marring the purity of your integrity.
Like one who takes off a garment on a cold day, or like vinegar on soda is he who sings songs to a troubled heart (vs. 20). As well-intended as your cheery songs may be, someone who is going through difficulties may view your upbeat treatment as a curse rather than a blessing. “Well, I just don’t want them to go around in the dumps,” you may say; but if you’re not sensitive to the Holy Spirit in the situation, you may find that your “ministry” is more self-serving than it is other-serving. If others tend to wince at your upbeat input when they are going through troubles, make sure that what you’re offering isn’t just a bit of dross you’ve pulled out as a bandage so you don’t have to deal more directly with their pain. This isn’t an easy impurity to identify in ourselves, but it’s certainly a hindrance to Christ-directed ministry.
Like a trampled spring and a polluted well is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked (vs. 26). One type of impurity comes in the form of the fear of man. When you and I give way before the wicked—when we recognize wicked actions or attitudes overtaking boundaries set by God and do or say nothing about it—we have become like a trampled spring and a polluted well. How can we offer the pure water of life when we yield to the standards of wickedness set up to bring those we want to help into bondage? Are we willing to take a stand when it is unpopular to do so? Lord, help us.
It is not good to eat much honey, nor is it glory to search out one’s own glory (vs. 27). When you search out your own glory, you tend to turn conversations back to yourself, your accomplishments, your blessings, and how God’s used you. Another verse takes it further: Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips (Proverbs 27:2). If you find yourself turning every get together into a showcase of how great (wise, spiritual, insightful, gifted, giving, ad nauseam) you are, chances are good that you’ve got some dross-skimming to do.
Like a city that is broken into and without walls is a man who has no control over his own spirit (vs. 28). We all get annoyed at times. We all feel disappointed every now and then. Many of us have gone through a season or two in our lives when nothing goes right and storm clouds seem to hang over our souls. But if we lose utter control in the face of these things, we become like a city without protective walls. The good news is this: Even our own bad responses to trials can be treated as dross to be skimmed off and thrown away. Here’s how: Through all the messes, aggravations, disappointments, rejections and dashed dreams, you know there is an anchor. You know there is a Rock. You know there is a tower to which you can run and be safe. And knowing this—focusing on this—will bring stability to you when annoyances, disappointments, rejection, loss, or dashed dreams loom large. When your life seems to be going nowhere fast—or utterly falling apart—and you feel like you’re about to lose control, prepare to skim that dross by just saying to God, “I have no idea how You’ll fix this, but I know You are my anchor and my rock. I choose to run to You instead of losing control of my behavior or my mind right now. In You I find safety, relief, and comfort.” As you fix your attention on His ability and loving care, stability will start guarding your heart and will direct you in the way of peace.
The take away is clear: You don’t have to go through a gut-wrenching trial to remove the dross from the silver. All that’s required is for you to allow God to teach you from His Word, granting Him permission to meddle in your life, attitudes, and behaviors. He’ll show you the dross if you’re willing to see it, and He’ll lead you in the simplicity of skimming it off, once and for all.
If you wait for the fiery trials of life before you deal with issues, you are not only short-changing your growth, but you are also a fiery trial waiting to happen! Skim the impurities away now—as you become aware of them—and you will find you’ve become a vessel for the smith!
Dorothy
Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work. 2 Timothy 2:21
Read MoreFathers
It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Luke 1:17; emphasis added
The forerunner, John the Baptist, was ordained by God to prepare the way of the Lord. Throughout church history, in times of spiritual drought, famine, and darkness, God has looked for men and women of similar passion and focus to once again prepare the way of the Lord. Every revival, renewal, reformation, awakening, and move that has poured out from Heaven upon a weary earth found its conception when some man, some woman, some child said Yes to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and entered into a targeted season of entreaty before God on behalf of others.
A bulk of the preparatory work of John in the days before Jesus entered His ministry involved three specific avenues: turning the hearts of fathers back to the children; turning the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous; and to make a people prepared for the Lord. For anyone who wants to see God invade, change, and rearrange their culture, I believe that the “outline” John received from the Holy Spirit is still powerfully effective to use in intercession for any generation—especially this one.
…to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children…
So much has been said, written, and preached about fatherhood. Yet everywhere I look, I see children and teens suffering from negligent, abusive, or disinterested/absent fathers. And as those kids grow up, they do so without the tool chest that healthy fathering provides. Adults are living their lives bent in a way God never created them to lean, in great part due to the deficient and often inexcusable fathering they received. And unfortunately, many mothers have also fallen short as well.
Kids grow up scared, angry, or depressed into very troubled teens who make poor choices, and then they enter into a horribly dysfunctional adulthood where they find themselves scratching their heads—why am I so unhappy?—scared, angry, depressed. Then they produce children…and the sad cycle continues.
One irrefutable need in our generation is to radically overturn the fatherhood deficiency. Our inner cities ache for the stability of men of integrity. Our meth-pocked rural areas cry out for the steadiness of men of honor. And our suburbs secretly weep for men who value and live out their commitments to their wives and children in love.
Unless God intervenes, as Cher sang, the beat goes on. Therefore a key component to any awakening, move, or reformation of God is to transform fathers. Negligence, abuse, disinterest, and absenteeism must be repented of, one father at a time.
I can almost hear the Holy Spirit urging, “There’s hope! I will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children. But you, believer—take your stand. Pray. Dig deep. Intercede for the lost, broken, distracted, and wayward men of your generation who have turned—for whatever reasons—away from their families…from their kids. Pray that they will sense an irresistible pull toward Me, encounter Me face to face, receive forgiveness and cleansing, and then by the power of My grace, turn back to their children with humility and integrity…and restore peace, acceptance, safety, and love to their families once again.”
All of us have had a father. Many of us were blessed with good fathers. Far more of us have experienced a lifetime of pain in the short span of childhood due to irresponsible, irrational, or eruptive fathering. Is it any wonder why the first stated thrust of the forerunner in Luke 1:17 was to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children? Sweeping, irrefutable outpourings of the Holy Ghost must be accompanied by a massive move among fathers turning in humble love and repentance to their children. Deep wounds will be healed, bent lives will be straightened out and restored, and Jesus will be manifested openly as Lord once again—on city streets, in suburban neighborhoods, and in small towns, farming communities, and remote regions throughout the nation.
But first things first—Pray. May the hearts of the fathers be restored to the children.
Dorothy
Read MoreForerunning prayer
It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Luke 1:17
For every move of God there is a “back story”.
John the Baptist played a key role in the back story to Jesus’ miraculous time upon the earth. His calling? To prepare the way of the Lord. To be a forerunner before Him.
Did you realize that the preparatory work of the forerunner didn’t stop with John? It’s a calling that has appeared in every generation ever since Jesus walked the earth.
This weekend marks the 110th anniversary of the outpouring of God at Azusa Street which began falling on April 9, 1906. This move came upon those souls suddenly—but it didn’t take all of them by surprise. No, concerted prayer on the part of a couple of local black congregations combined with those of others, including a white man named Frank Bartleman. Fervent prayer preceded this iconic move of God; without it, the Azusa outpouring would have never happened.
When you read about the various moves, revivals, renewals, awakenings, and sweeping reformations, they share one commonality—forerunners in prayer. Often for months or years—even decades—before the first trickle of the miraculous begins to rain down, these intercessors labor in the shadows, interceding before God on behalf of souls.
Preparation for a move of God typically requires that someone intercede on behalf of men, and Luke 1:17 reveals three specific thrusts of such preparatory prayer.
- To turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children
- To turn the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous
- To make ready a people prepared for the Lord
Preparatory intercession occurs during times of spiritual drought. It happens during times of spiritual famine. It also takes place during times of chaos, turmoil, and trouble. It’s going on right now, and I fully believe that the Lord is seeking to enlist you and me in this work. Will we hear—and heed—His call?
For the next few blogs, I plan to put a magnifying glass upon each of the three thrusts of preparation found in Luke 1:17. Hope you’ll join me.
Dorothy
I searched for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land…. Ezekiel 22:30a
Read MoreObfuscation
I was praying on Valentine’s Day about the election, and the word “obfuscation” kept coming to me. I wasn’t sure of two things: how to pronounce it or what it means. But I sensed that it was a strategy to bring confusion to the American people and their vote, and I also felt that I was to pray that God would bring forth effective strategies to overturn all the strategies of obfuscation.
The word means “to make obscure or unclear; to darken.”
As I tore this word apart, I found three similar definitions that are distinctly different in their connotations. I sensed that there are three corresponding groups of people upon which the strategy of obfuscation is being applied: those who are well-meaning and “live and let live” types; the me-first, pleasure/gratification-driven crowd; and the church.
Here are the three definitions:
To confuse. This is the strategy of temporary interference with the clear working of one’s mind through causing confusion, unsettledness, embarrassment, or a multitude of distractions. This strategy is used with the well-meaning, live and let live crowd who want to pull their own weight and make good choices. It is intended to push them off-balance and to confuse them in their decision-making processes. They are manipulated while they are confused.
To stupefy. This is the strategy to remove sensibility, to benumb the faculties, to put into a stupor, to stun as with a narcotic, a shock, or a strong emotion. This strategy is used with the me-first crowd and the pleasure/gratification-driven crowd. They are manipulated and controlled through the daze of their pleasures and the promise of unending gratification.
To bewilder. This strategy is all about causing its targets to stagger and be confounded at the immensity of the forces that defy them. It is used to muddy the waters and cause targets to lose both their hope and their way. This strategy is intended to cause targets to wander aimlessly, unanchored and without vision. This is the strategy of obfuscation that is being used against the church. When our hope is lost, we become unanchored; without a vision, we perish.
So as I pray about this election, I realize that obfuscation is being used against American people of all stripes. I will be praying for God to bring light to these strategies, and that the intended targets will wake up and wise up to see that what they’ve been thinking and feeling isn’t completely true. I’ll be praying that light will illuminate the minds of the hundreds of millions of my fellow citizens to see clearly—perhaps for the first time in their lives—and to make wise decisions that will not only affect the course of this election, but also the course of their individual lives and the nation.
And I’d like for you to join me.
Dorothy
Read MoreHow do I pray for our nation?
How do I pray for my country? Just by asking this question, you show your desire to shoulder your part of the prayer load, and I believe this pleases God. Even though the problems in our nation appear to be innumerable and unnervingly complex, God has called His people to pray and seek His face concerning the welfare of the nation in which they live.
The good news is this: You don’t have to cover it all—God will show you your part to pray each time you go to Him; He will lead you to that portion of the puzzle about which He’s anointed you to pray that day. When you start to sense a leading from Him, pray on it in faith—even if you wonder if it’s just you. God wants to use your prayers to bring about His will in that specific thing.
As you purpose to pray daily for the nation, the topic may change or stay the same; all the while you are learning to let Him lead—and all the while your prayers are being effective.
Imagine how much can be accomplished if each of us simply asked God to help us pray for our nation at some point during the day. That which would be too much for one solitary person to shoulder will be accomplished by the Spirit of God as He individually reveals to each one their part to pray each day.
One of my pastors says something all the time about the huge projects our church undertakes: “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”
Well, how will we see the boiling cauldron that is the United States transform once again to a city set on a hill, bathed in the light and mercy of God? One prayer in one mouth at a time, multiplied by the multitude of souls in the church—both American and worldwide—multiplied by the hours still left us, multiplied by the immeasurable glory of God!
And that, my friend, is how we pray for our nation.
Dorothy
Read MoreSeek Him
When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You, “Your face, O Lord, I shall seek.” Psalm 27:8
Is the Lord tugging at your heart to spend some time with Him? If so, don’t be concerned about the everyday hub-bub; He will take care of all of that as you obey and pull away to seek Him.
Does the Lord seem to be far, far away? Have you grown numb from circumstances piling in on you, and now don’t have the energy to spend on God? If that’s you, I want to encourage you—He is near. He cares, and He longs for you to know that. The Bible promises that if you draw near to God, He will draw near to you (see James 4:8). Seek Him. He will hear the faintest whisper from the weariest one of us, and He will lift you up.
So many Scriptures speak about seeking the Lord. Although you and I are called to a 24/7 communication with the living God, the Bible also reveals that there will be times when God prompts you into a special season of seeking Him, a time in which you set aside other activities to draw close to Him.
This is what I will be doing for the next few weeks. Since I will be laying aside my blog for a period of time to spend time with the Lord, I want to leave you with some encouraging verses about seeking Him. Soak in them and pick out one or two that really speak to you. Copy them for yourself to think on as you draw near to God. Enjoy!
But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. Deuteronomy 4:29
Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually! 1 Chronicles 16:11
If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14
And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you. Psalm 9:10
The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. Psalm 14:2
The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. Psalm 34:10
But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation say continually, “Great is the Lord!” Psalm 40:16
O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Psalm 63:1
Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart…Psalm 119:2
With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! Psalm 119:10
I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me. Proverbs 8:17
“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Isaiah 55:6-7
Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. Jeremiah 29:12-14
The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. Lamentations 3:25
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Matthew 6:33
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Matthew 7:7-8
And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us…Acts 17:26-27
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Hebrews 11:6
God bless you as you seek Him. See you sometime in February (or before if the Lord leads me that way).
Dorothy
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